Travis Alford (b. 1983) is a composer, trumpet player, and improviser currently living in the Boston area. Growing up in Spring Hope, NC, he began playing the trumpet at the age of 11 in school concert and jazz bands, community groups, and in church. In college he discovered he was much better at composing than playing the trumpet (though he still tries). This background continues to be an influence in Travis's music, as Allan Kozinn of the NY Times recently noted, writing of Transitions, "...his work's spirit is in the way jazz and a mild modernist thorniness move in and out of focus." Other interests, including the autobiographical nature of creating art, the relationship between art and spirituality, and the effects of commercialism and "sound-bite" media on society, also find their way into his work.

Travis's music has been performed at venues across the United States and beyond including the June in Buffalo Festival, the Composers Conference at Wellesley College, the ACA Summer Music Festival at Symphony Space in NY, the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice, the Exploring Trumpet International Seminar in Kalavrita, Greece, the NewMusic@ECU Festival, and New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall, by groups such as the Meridian Arts Ensemble, the Lydian String Quartet, Second Instrumental Unit, and members of the New York New Music Ensemble. He was recently awarded a 2010 ASCAP Young Composers Award for his composition, Breathing Room.

As a performer, Travis remains active as a freelance musician and is committed to the promotion of new music, playing regularly for concerts and premieres of his colleagues. He is also co-founder and Artistic Director of the experimental & collaborative COMPROVISED Music Series (Boston & NY), and is director of the Park Street Brass, based at Park Street Church in Boston.

Travis is currently instructor of Composition and Counterpoint at Gordon College in Wenham, MA. He holds degrees from the New England Conservatory (MM, Music Composition 2008) and East Carolina University (BM, Music Theory/Composition 2005), and is working toward a PhD in composition at Brandeis University. His principle composition teachers have included David Rakowski, Eric Chasalow, Lee Hyla, Edward Jacobs, Mark Richardson, and Mark Taggart. He has studied trumpet formally with Britton Theurer, and informally with Brian McWhorter and Jon Nelson. He has also studied Contemporary Improvisation with Tanya Kalmanovitch.

Travis resides in Watertown, MA with his lovely wife, Lauren, and their dog, Toby.

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